AAUW Study Finds Girls Making Some Progress, But Gaps Remain

Girls are catching up to boys in mathematics and science, but
technology may be emerging as the next "boys' club," says a new report
by the American Association of University Women.

The report scheduled for release this week, follows up on an AAUW
study six years ago that ignited a national conversation about gender
inequities in education with its contention that schools routinely
"shortchanged" girls.

Like its predecessor, the new study from the Washington-based group
is based on a review of nearly 1,000 studies.

"Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still Fail Our Children," shows that
girls have made some strides in schools over the past six years. The
numbers of girls enrolled in algebra, trigonometry, precalculus, and
calculus, for example, grew at a faster rate than boys' enrollment did
between 1990 and 1994. More girls are taking Advanced Placement and
honors calculus and chemistry classes.

For More Information:

Copies of "Gender Gaps: Where Schools Still
Fail Our Children," may be ordered from the American Association
of University Women's sales office, Dept. 478, Annapolis
Junction, MD 20701-0251; tel. (800) 225-9998, ext.
478.

And, in the latest rounds of international tests in math and science,
the achievement gap between girls and boys in the United States was
among the smallest in the world.

"But what we do find is alarming is this new trend in terms of
technology," said Janice Weinman, the executive director of the
Washington-based AAUW. "This is becoming the new club from which girls
are feeling disenfranchised. Consequently, girls are not going to be
appropriately prepared for the technology era of the new 21st
century."

Beyond Typing

Both inside and outside of school, girls of all ages tend to have
less exposure to computers and to say they feel less confident about
using them, compared with boys, the report says. The gap widens,
however, from grades 8 to 11. In 1996, for example, girls made up only
17 percent of students taking the College Board's Advanced Placement
test in computer science.

When they do use computers in schools, the report says, girls are
more apt to do it in clerical and data-entry classes.

"It's nice to use a computer to type, but that's not where
technology is going," said Cheryl L. Sattler, an author of the report
and a research scientist at the American Institutes of Research. The
Washington-based research firm produced the report for the AAUW.

Among the study's other findings are that:

Even though similar numbers of high school boys and girls are
taking math and science classes, boys still far outnumber girls in
physics.

In school-to-work programs, which combine challenging academics
with vocational training, girls still tend to cluster in traditional
female occupations.

Although girls are taking more Advanced Placement courses and
getting better grades than boys, their scores on those exams still
tend to be lower.

On large-scale exams, such as the National Assessment of
Educational Progress, the top scorers in math and science still tend
to be boys.

But boys face inequities in school, too, the report acknowledges.
Girls predominate, for example, in advanced English courses and in
foreign-language and arts classes.

In middle and elementary school, they also outscore boys by wide
margins on NAEP tests in reading and writing.

"You can't compare girls against boys using boys as the benchmark,"
Ms. Weinman says. "Girls have weaknesses and strengths, and boys have
weaknesses and strengths, too."

Changing the Tone

Some reviewers of the report said the effort to include boys in
discussions of gender equity represents a shift from the alarm sounded
in the 1992 report, "How Schools Shortchange Girls."

"I think in tone and in substance it is a quantum leap forward from
the earlier piece because it is less strident, frankly," said
Christopher Cross, the president of the Council for Basic Education, a
nonprofit group in Washington that promotes high academic standards.
"The fact that it is not alarmist should not obscure the importance of
calling attention to these issues."

The report also omits any mention of one of the earlier report's
more debated conclusions--a contention that teachers call on boys more
often in class. The authors said they could find no new data on that
subject.

But the changes did not appease some of the organization's critics,
who said the association's emphasis on girls was unwarranted.

"The AAUW is till whining and calling girls victims, when girls for
the most part do far better in schools than boys," said Judith S.
Kleinman, a psychology professor from the University of Alaska
Fairbanks who wrote a critique of the first report.

The statistics show, in fact, that, apart from physics, enrollment
gaps between girls and boys in advanced math and science courses are
variable and slight--especially when compared with the much greater
academic disparities separating white and black students.

"This is not a picture of a huge gender gap that requires
public-policy change," said Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New
York University's school of education and a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution in Washington.

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